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March 8, 2002
HELLO! Fans, friends, web surfers, lend me your eyes! Firstly, I want to begin by apologizing greatly for the cancellation of our Norfolk and Cleveland shows. Nothing gets to me more than the thought of not being able to meet and play for some of you. However, the reason for doing so was an important one. The band and I (along with some of you kick ass fans that came from all over) shot our second video for "Adrienne" in Los Angeles. It went amazing, but I will get back to that in a second.
Wow, the past two weeks have flown by due to all the fun we're having. Since I talked to you last we've played all over the US. Starting in Minneapolis, definitely one of our favorite cities, it was so awesome to play The Quest and sell it out. We had just been there with Lifehouse as openers and now we get it all to our selves. The show went good even though I was extremely sick that day and losing my voice! It was the most difficult show for me, but you guys really lifted me up and made me feel better. I guess it was good I got getting sick over with in the beginning of the tour. It was cool (literally) to be in a big city while it was snowing...growing up in LA I never got to experience it.
The following day was Chicago. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to sing that night. I was really hurting bad. A doctor came and supped me up with shots and steroids and antibiotics and some voodoo ginger shity tasting tea. Well, amazingly enough it all worked and right before show time I was ready to go (yet I felt like I was floating on the moon). Chicago was frikkin great! The place we played had to be the coolest club we've ever performed in. It even had a disco ball that got rolling on Stigmatized! Good times.
Anyway the next few days all went smoothly. In Indianapolis we celebrated Billy's 27th Birthday on stage. We brought him out a cake and I had the crowd sing. It was really funny. I wanted to get old Larr a stripper but they're hard to come by these days and I know his woman wouldn't approve:) When we closed the set that night with Adrienne, someone threw a "blow up sex doll" with Adrienne written all over it. So we all took turns beating it up and then sent it out to crowd surf over the audience. It was all in good fun though...I in no way support violence, but I think it's O.K. on a rubber woman.
Bottleneck Kansas was a treat for us because we got to, you guessed it, shop. It was a very chill town with a really sweet vibe. Then it was off to the big Texas. Both Dallas and Houston went fantastic...really beautiful people in those parts. Everyone was so nice it was almost scary. But what was up with the weather? Since when is Texas ridiculously cold? The weather has been unusual all over the country.
New Orleans was next and boy is it a wild place. It was all of our first time experiencing Bourbon St. and the wild locals. I had some time to buy important souvenirs like Mardi Gras beads with a lady whose boobs light up as the pendant, and hot sauce called "red rectum"...lovely huh? It was Sean's 21st that night so we did the cake thing on stage again, but this time I asked this gorgeous girl to come on stage and sing happy birthday to him. She was pretty shy so I had to provoke the situation by taking her hand and stroking Sean's chest..."good Sean good".
I can't believe I am now the only band member that isn't legal! My fake ID just isn't working anymore 'cause now club bouncers are like "hey, your that guy in that band right?...I didn't know your name was Skeezer Lickworth...and you're 30, take a hike buddy!"
Anyway, back to the tour. Next up was good old Birmingham Alabama, our #1 city. Next to our home town, Alabama was our main starting ground. We played our first show ever outside of LA there last summer and their rock station was the first in the country to play "Wherever You Will Go." Also you Birmingham fans are the original ones next to places like Spokane, Washington and others (quick shout out to Shannon in Spokane...I got your "Calling Project" and love it! Thank you so much for putting in all that hard work and time. That is something I will keep for the rest of my life as a momento of these amazing times. Thank you also everyone else who sent in your letters to Shannon for the project). The more into it the fans are the more fun we have performing, so when coming to Birmingham we can always expect a good show...and it was.
Atlanta was freezazazing! But beautiful as always. After the show we had to wake up at like 3 AM to catch a flight back home, but we really wanted to sign for all the fans that were patiently waiting outside the tour bus. We broke down when we heard them all start singing "Wherever You Will Go" and "Could it be Any 'Colder'?" We did our best to go out and sign before our Tour manager had to cut us off (if we didn't get to you I'm sorry. We will next time).
Then it was off to a quick detour in Los Angeles. It was nice to see home for two days even though I barely had one-second to cuddle with my cat or girlfriend. The video shoot was ridiculous. We definitely knew we've stepped up when the catering serves shrimp and filet mignons to 200 cast and crew members! A genius director name Nigel Dick did this video and it was looking amazing. The concept is simple really. We're on a real abandoned military base performing, as thousands of all different types of people are waiting in a single file line to sing a few words of "Adrienne" right in front of me and the band. There's going to be some special effects and a surprise ending sure to dazzle TRL viewers. By the way we got retired finally on TRL! We get plaques and everything! It's definitely time for a new video. I can't wait until we see the final product.
Well, we're back on the road now in Detroit finishing up this tour and very excited to come see you all. The band says "hello" and wishes everyone great health, happiness, and love.
See you soon!
Your friends,
Alex Band and The Calling
April 8, 2002
All I can say is I fucking love my job. Alex here writing to you from believe it or not, Bangkok, Thailand! I got to say I was a little nervous about leaving our home country and family of fans to embark on this over seas mission, but all I can do now is keep pinching myself and realizing it's all real.
To be on the other side of the earth almost a day ahead of my world in places I thought I would never see in my lifetime and have thousands of people know who I am already is hard to comprehend. I've almost felt like we've been in an entirely different universe; between strange languages, excelled technology, totally different cultures, and not to mention crazy jetlag and the more than occasional sake/beer. I have fallen in love with Japan, and Thailand is not far behind. It's really a spectacular place. It's 100 degrees here now with 90% humidity. Almost unbearable to even stand near a window. They're all fogged up with condensation. It really feels like being in a rainforest. Totally different from a place like Florida, maybe more like Mexico. I'm going to briefly describe my last two days here in Bangkok while they're fresh in my head and then I'll get back to Japan.
We were greeted at one in the morning Tuesday night in the airport by at least a hundred screaming girls. These fans are more than a few steps ahead of what we're used to on the excitement level. I mean full out N Sync/The Beatles moment, with girls grabbing and pushing and pulling while 10 Thai bodyguards with in-ears and dark sunglasses formed a rectangular human wall around us. All the fans have pretty much followed us everywhere we go. Aaron just got here. He unfortunately had to miss Japan and the first day of Bangkok because his grandmother/best friend passed away. It's good to have him back. We luckily still managed last week in Japan. The fans there were pretty intense too, but not on the level of Bangkok. The band and I really loved Japan. It was so clean and organized, full of strange gadgets and mouth watering food. There are vending machines like every 20 feet on the street and it's legal to walk around outside and drink alcohol. We didn't of course ;) Sean knew a little Japanese because he lived with a Japanese roommate...kind of an odd bird. His roommate refused to wash any dishes. He would line his dirty cereal bowls with plastic wrap and eat with plastic silverware. I thought that was pretty amusing. So Sean knew how to say "The cheese is old and moldy" which really came in handy at the shows and the interviews. I learned a few key phrases to say to the fans when they were mobbing us like "I'm finished, leave me alone!" All in good fun though. The Japanese are very serious about their umbrellas so don't joke around. Not a single one would dare go outside in the rain without one. Every restuarant/hotel/business had special lockers to keep your umbrella locked up safe not to mention the machine that would wrap them in plastic so no water dripped inside...it's genius! No wait, yes genius. It was sucky to play without Aaron for our first time to Japan but the shows still went fantastic thanks to the fans. There's nothing like seeing that Billy's sex appeal spans the globe and to hear Sean's name shrieked in a plethora of accents is lovely. We managed to make it to Karaoke one night which was so much fun. They had our song so we all went up in front of the locals and sang it...bad. I think they were catching on that we might just be the band who really sings it. But we just kept singing it worse and worse. We followed that number up with Mariah Carey's "Hero" which was hilarious. I never knew Nate could hit such high notes. Then we sang Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer". Nate was singing it Linkin Park style (too much Asahi) which was not going over well with the Japanese Karaoke audience. A girl actually got up on stage and tried to take over in hopes of stopping our debauchery...no dice. I will never forget my days in Japan and I can't wait to go back. Tomorrow's our show here in Bangkok. I'm sure this crowd will be a wild one.
Wow. Things were going so well, I should have realized that being in a rock band one of us would have to face a near death experience sooner or later. A pyro explosion? no. Choking on vomit (hopefuly your own)? no. How about getting really badly electrocuted? Now which one of us is the last person that should have to deal with something like that now? You guessed it, Aaron. I'm sitting here, Thursday night, in the hotel, keeping Aaron company while he gets off his electricity high. The day was going great until we got to sound check. The venue was huge and looked promising, but the rental gear like the transformer and stuff was a little old and beat up. I watched our tech as he was checking the microphones get shocked with a blue lightening bolt passing a few inched between him and Sean's mic. All ready for us? Whoopee! They covered our mics with foam right after Sean managed to get zapped. This actually is a somewhat normal occurrence at shows. It's usually solved by grounding all the gear but because of the different weird electricity it wasn't possible. Little did everyone know the whole stage was charged just waiting for a connecting bridge to the main gear. Aaron set down his electric guitar and picked up his acoustic and for that brief second he became that bridge. Physically unable to let go, he was electrocuted with 220 V instead of our meager American 120 V. Our guitar tech saved the day by unplugging Aaron's acoustic and pretty much throwing him to the ground. I've never seen anything like it. Me and the band were about to cry cause we thought Aaron was dead, but he wasn't, just badly hurt. We carried him out into another room cause the venue was already filled with press who had just seen what happened. Aaron was pale as a ghost and had gotten the strings of the guitar melted in the palm of his hand and fingers. He was bleeding pretty bad. I obviously made the call to cancel the show because there was no way Aaron was going to be able to play and there was sure as hell no way I was going to go dancing around on a giant taser. We felt horrible for letting down the fans, but even worse for poor Aaron's luck. It was nobody's fault, just a freak accident. I wish it would have happened to me which it almost did minutes before. Anyway, Aaron is O.K. His hands will heal in the next few days and henceforth he shall now be known as "Milk Toast"! I know it's wrong, but I'm just trying to make light of the subject. So I guess now word has spread all over the globe with reports of like ten different stories: "Aaron was electrocuted and is paralyzed or dead". Silly. We made the cover of the newspaper here in Thailand. Not an article about how great our show was, but how great it could have been. I promise, we will come back to Bangkok very soon and make it up to all the fans that missed out. Aaron and I send our love to all of you. Thank you again for your amazing hospitality and understanding.
So now we just arrived in Melbourne, Australia! I don't know what day it is, what time it is, whether I should sleep or eat. Breakfast? Lunch? Major time zone crossing and 30 hours of flying so far and we're still alive, barely. Leaving Bangkok was anything but easy. When we left the hotel, we were immediately followed by at least ten taxi cars full of fans. We weren't that worried though, by then they were practically becoming part of our group. Aaron tried to show the young Thai fans that he was O.K. by mooning them as they drove by on the freeway. I'm sure the sight of his naked white ass showed them just that, or blinded them. One of the cars drove by with a sign in broken English that said "Oh nice buns, Alex, Billy, Nate, Sean, you turn". Hmmmm, do I want the last thing sticking in these wonderful people's minds being our very "mature" bottoms? I obviously chose to sit that one out. Well, take every time we've been in crazy mass fan situations and multiply them by 100. That's the level of what happened next. First of all it was like being on an African safari with the wild animals surrounding our car. I swear there was at least 200 people there just waiting to say good-bye. I, like always, was filming every second. I wish it wasn't so crazy so we could have stopped to sign for them all, but it was too out of hand and our fleet of Thai security weren't screwing around. We got so many loads of great gifts so far, even another brilliant book of fan letters from all over arranged and narrated by a sweet Thai girl. Thanks everyone for that. We also got a bunch of really nice boxing gloves which could come in handy the next time we all want to beat the @#$% out of each other. Bottom line? Thailand rocks and will be visited regularly.
So the tour thus far has been a wild ride to say the least. Full of once in a lifetime experiences all caught on camera. I'm hoping to release the first year of The Calling DVD one day soon with all the behind the scene stuff and some live shows too. I'm sure you guys would love to see what really goes on all the time. I have so much priceless footage just waiting to be seen. So it's off to be a "media whore" for me. It feels nice to be back in a country that speaks English. I can't wait to come home, but first we still have Europe to conquer. Thanks so much for reading my silly tour diary entries. I'm glad there's a way I can keep you all up to date while we're gone. The band says hi and that there is bound to be much more crazy thing to write about in the next two weeks. Thanks again! See you all soon!
Yo mama,
Alex
